College Myths and Alternatives

30 Jan College Myths and Alternatives

I am not going to a college immediately. Well, not a traditional, 4-year college.

Not because I don’t want to learn, not because I decided to be lazy. But simply because itwouldn’t fit with what I want to do in life – become a remote working serial high-techentrepreneur.

Here are the reasons and my point of view on busting college myths.

Myth 1 : The underlying thought process of most people – going to college will at leastgive you a degree, the “essential” item to apply for a job, making it the safest route.Wrong. Seriously, in today’s world, we have an overflowing amount of college students,who are often underqualified for their jobs. You can easily beat that by showing youremployers what you can do. In my case, starting lean startups like Pieter Levels willprovide the best resumes. Nowadays, companies and clients value experience more thaneducation. Even by creating a simple, yet awesome site about you will present them withthe best resume.

My goal is, however, not to be employed by someone, but rather become “unemployed”by establishing sources of passive income .

Truth is, becoming a digital nomad and traveling around the world to meet people whoare not only experienced in life and careers but also are as passionate and bold as youare is more likely to give you much more meaningful connections.

Secondly,“connections” is not what you need, but friends, friends who share the same visions andvalues as you do and who will guide you through adversities. This is something that’smuch more effective than mere materialistic associations. Update: I changed my opinion on this after experiencing how powerful and efficient connections can give you. Furthermore, friends are often made through those initial connections.

Thirdly, a simple trick involving an email permutator with a free plugin called Rapportive can get you connected virtually anyone in the world (as long as they are on LinkedIn). There are other ways too. The only problem is explaining to the person how you got their email, without creeping them out.

Bottom line is, a genuine relationship can only happen when youprovide value to others. People will automatically come to you when you have that value,and people will leave you sooner or later when you don’t.

Myth 3: College has been proven to be great. Statistically speaking, more successfulpeople came out of college than those who didn’t.There are two components to this issue that have been overlooked by people, and somemisconceptions have to be cleared before accepting this delusion.

First, you are comparing two groups of people generally, those who are motivated toachieve greatness for themselves – who attend college, and those who lack the will oropportunities to plan for their future – who don’t attend college. Because of the problemsof the TYPES of people when compared, perception is often skewed by merely looking atthe statistics and history of college grads, instead of why it is what it is.

Second, extending the first point, what matters is the people, not thecollege. Especially for big name colleges, they have a system to FILTERpeople that are very likely to become successful, based on their pasthistories and records. In other words, those who graduate from highlyselective colleges already HAVE the ability to be great, before they evenattend the university. Yes, going to those elite colleges will be beneficial, butcan the same be achieved even with greater value in other ways, with moreefficiency and less cost? Some ways could be taking a gap year after highschool and exploring what you truly want to do, starting a company toprovide value to others, or starting a nonprofit for a better cause.

Myth 4 : College provides knowledge and teaches people how to think.True. But please don’t tell me you don’t know that there’s such thing as online learningplatforms, where you can easily go in your own time to freely reflect upon what youthink.

Also, people post the lectures of big-name colleges like the Ivy Leagues andStanford online, such as Harvard’s Positive Psychology 1504. Furthermore, it works tosneak into those universities’ lectures because no one is there to catch you. Even betteris if you go and talk to the students there and make friends with them so that they couldbring you into the lectures.

Moreover, living and using the knowledge you’ve “learned” isunarguably the best way to educate yourself, not to mention how this way teaches youhow to think in both real-life terms and creatively.

My Dream Schools: Despite all this, I will be applying for this school: Minerva. Students stay in San Francisco the first year and go to 6 other cities around the world the rest three years, one city per semester. I sincerely believe that Minerva is the school of the 21st century.

Part of it being a higher education with the open-mindedness to transform all of its students to global citizens (I am a wannabe digital nomad who believes that global remote working is the future trend). Part of it is its attitude to evaluate its candidates holistically, rather than how most other colleges are with test scores and GPAs – something I believe to have less importance today. Part of it is its forward thinking attitude about guiding students the mindset to think critically and grow exponentially, instead of teaching mere theoretical knowledge. And part of it is having a lean model of ridding the unnecessaries – buildings and tangible barriers, and replace it with a game-changing system – online learning platforms where everyone can be easily connected (which reflects a degree of Minimalism that I resonate with).

I can just feel myself becoming so happy and alive seeing those who currently attends there, even on the other side of the screen when I am researching about them. I can only imagine surrounding myself with those people in college and becoming so inspired and satisfied with my decisions to the path of higher education.

I guess I am just a nonconformist.

Alternative option:

But, what if I don’t get into that school? Something feasible is to take off for a year or soas a gap year and travel around the world to test things out!Money, you say. How is it feasible to travel around the world without money to start?Well, to solve this issue, I would either decrease my spending and limit liabilities(anything that takes money away from you) or increase my income and generate assets(anything that gives you money).

Decrease spending and limit liabilities: when you don’t have to spend tens ofthousands of dollars on schooling, that’s a big plus and relief from paying off thestudent loan. Also, there goes the nomadic way of leveraging different existingmarkets to achieve productivity in a more economical way. That is, by living indeveloping countries like Thailand and working remotely, you can earn adeveloped country paycheck, with a bit of trade off on, perhaps, the quality ofgoods that you would get in a developed country. Or, you can become aminimalist and simply be homeless, car-less, and possession-less, which is a greatway to skip the pressure of getting a secured job and paying off liabilities thatmakes you in debt. Plus, you can trade those materialistic burdens for mental andphysical freedom, so why not? Humans are not made to take and possess things,but to give and serve; you’ll likely feel much more fulfilled if you did the oppositethan what one would normally expect. When is enough everenough? When we think it’s enough.

Increase income and invest in assets: Like I mentioned before, the goal is tobecome unemployed by establishing a source of passive income. This can beestablished by investigating and purchasing value-based stocks at an early age toselling information such as courses online or setting up a system of automaticdrop-shipping. If you want to be more personal, you can go from starting asimple niche blog of your liking or a Youtube channel. Furthermore, there’salways the option of learning a specific skill – programming, web design, etc. tobecome a freelancer. Also, if you don’t know already, working abroad for 330days (you can still spend 35 days with your family at home) will eliminate at leastpartially of your income tax – FEIE, that is, for those in the U.S.

Plus, you always have the option to live for absolutely free, from couchsurfing,wwoofing, housesitting, hitchhiking, to even dumpster diving (safely). The listgoes on. Your creativity will thrive under “life-threatening” situations and helpyou survive. Of course, this is not a sustainable way of living, but it sure can giveyou quite an experience and something with which to start.

P.S. These can all be achieved by becoming a world traveler and digital nomad.

Our time period has changed. Humans have progressed from the IndustrialRevolution of standards – knowledge and skills are valued, to an era of digital democracy– original ideas and open-mindedness are valued. And those who bluntly shut their eyesand pretend the change is not here will ultimately be flushed out of the new system. It’slike trying to race to a destination with a horse against someone who drives a car andraces a car against someone who flies an airplane. A short destination, you say, that thehorse and car will win. Sure. But my guess is that focusing on long-term growth is muchmore substantial and impactful – analyze the systems of society and think throughwhat’s best for you. Rather than ignorantly chasing the short-term immediate results of“being realistic” – get a degree, get a 9-5 job that’s secure. This is a major mistake madeby most people in the world because it is the turning point of their miserable life. Asmany become so lost of themselves later in life, they start to ponder why didn’t they

think through their decisions earlier and act bolder.

Bottom line is, I am not trying to persuade you that college is a waste of time since it obviously depends on what you want to do and whether you have something oftrue value to offer to society. College is what you make it and only what’s right for you isright for you. What I am trying to say is that those deceptive norms society tells us canbe manipulated to our own advantage, if we are aware of their existence and becomefreethinkers.

Here are the links to some awesome online learning and freelancing platforms in noparticular order.